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     ELLIS  PTA GENERAL MEETING
November 9, 2006

The November 9, 2006 PTA meeting was held in the Ellis Cafeteria, and opened at approximately 6:00 p.m., by President, Londa Coddington.
 
Londa Coddington:
Welcome to Pauline Gervais of DPS Transportation Services, and Debbie Beck and Steven Finley from DPS Risk Management.  They came to our meeting to discuss safety issues.

Connie Clifton:
Brought up possibly changing the afternoon bus pick up to north lot and have parents pick up children on Dahlia.  This may create more problems.  A committee met today on the Safe Routes Program.

Another possibility is to move the bus pick up location to Mexico.  All students would be dismissed to playground and parents would pick up their kids there.

Pauline stated she wants to do more research on having the busses pick up on Mexico due to high traffic volume and the high wall, which she believes leaves little room for the students.  They may do a test run with a bus on Mexico.

Connie showed new laminated poster which read “No Student Pick Up”, to be placed in no parking areas.  Need volunteers to help with dismissal, as well as to help pass out flyers advising of the no parking areas.

Kayti suggested that maybe the 4th and 5th graders could help show the younger students how to cross safely.  They could wear a safety vest, but they would not actually cross the street.  Steven discouraged this for safety reasons.

Helen stated that another crossing guard is needed on Iowa.  A suggestion was made by Catherine that PTA parents that are helping should wear ID stating that they’re from PTA or should wear a vest, so students would know.

Pam suggested kids be rewarded for good safety behavior.  The kids who didn’t practice good safety behavior could maybe write an essay about safety.  Connie said it can be mentioned to teachers to see what they come up with.  Pauline brought up that another option is to have the busses pull up back to back so there’s no room for kids to cut through when crossing unsafely across Dahlia.

The overall goal is the safety of the students.  This will constantly need to be re-emphasized.

Connie brought up another safety concern.  All doors will be locked at 4:30 p.m., except for the back door by the lunchroom where parents can pick up their kids from after-school programs.

Jenny Spampinato:
Jenny spoke to us about Destination Imagination (“DI”), a creative problem solving competition for students from ECE and up.  It’s usually run by parents.  No teams at Ellis have been set up yet.  She is looking for parent volunteers.  The students do the work – the parents are there mainly to supervise.  She showed us a video about DI.  The challenges are:  Technical-Mechanical; Science-Theater Arts; Theater Arts-Fine Arts; Improvisational-Theater Arts; and Structural-Architectural Design.  Competition is after Spring Break.  Deadline to set up teams is in December.  If anyone is interested in setting up a team, please email Jenny at jenny_spampinato@dpsk12.org, or come see her in Room 201.  Older kids can also help, as long as there is adult supervision.

Announcements:
Gunther Toody’s Night is November 14 from 4:30 – 9:00.

A suggestion was made that parents sign the folders that go home with the students so that teachers know the parents have the information that is sent home.

We were advised that Ellis has Adult ESL classes also on Thursday nights.  So that more people would be able to attend the PTA general meetings, a motion was raised that the general meeting days be changed to occur on the first Wednesday of every month, beginning in December.  The motion was approved and, starting in December, the PTA general meetings will be the first Wednesday of every month, beginning at 6:00 p.m., in the Ellis lunchroom.  If that first Wednesday falls around a holiday, the meeting will then occur on the 2nd Wednesday for that month.

A nominating committee is needed to help select nominees for PTA President and Vice President.  Angie Fowler volunteered to help with this.

RIF:
Kayti said RIF distribution is next week.  Notice on the bulletin board will go up Monday.  Books came in under budget.  We still have $2,400 to spend – maybe can be used to get more different language books.  With RIF, students can pick out any book they want, regardless of age group or language.  Nobody is supposed to pick out the books for them.

Scholastic Book Fair:
Helen mentioned that Janeece would like to budget $50 for publicity printing.  The Fair will occur the week of November 27.  Volunteers are needed.  Flyers will be sent home.

General Business:
With the change of the day of the general meeting, the next PTA meeting will be on Wednesday, December 6 at 6:00 p.m., in the Ellis Cafeteria.

The November PTA meeting minutes were approved.

Treasurer’s Report:
Net worth at this time is approximately $4,392.  Budget proposal – net worth plus additional fundraising income (t-shirt sales, e-books, and memberships) = $4892.  Estimated expenses are approximately $2,100, which leaves $2,792.27 to work with.

Connie thought that some teachers, on average, spend roughly $500-$1,000 per school year of their own money for their classrooms.  It was suggested that each teacher submit a grant to PTA for items they need and how much, and the PTA would need to approve the grant.

Josh Walker thinks that PTA funding for transportation for field trips would be very helpful.

A suggestion was made for PTA to draft a letter to teachers regarding transportation for field trips.

Reflections:
Everything is going smoothly.  Judging of the artwork will be done at the Steering Committee meeting on December 1.  The results need to be turned in by December 6.

Open Forum:
Regarding translators, we were advised that if we submit a request to the Denver Public Schools’ main office enough time in advance, they will provide translators for free.

For the next meeting, Londa will look into having someone from Colorado PTA be a speaker.


Respectfully submitted by Karen Kah, Secretary.
 This page was last updated: Friday, February 9, 2007 at 8:08:37 AM

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